Workplaces urged to crack down on ‘laddish’ football chat
Companies should crack down on workplace chat about football and cricket amid fears it excludes women, a top management body has warned.
Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, said sporting banter could divide offices and pave the way for more laddish behaviour.
“A lot of women, in particular, feel left out,” she told the BBC’s Today programme. “They don’t follow those sports and they don’t like either being forced to talk about them or not being included.”
In addition, Francke warned that sporting squabbles about topics such as video assistant refereeing (VAR) could escalate into more unsavoury subjects.
“It’s a gateway to more laddish behaviour and — if it just goes unchecked — it’s a signal of a more laddish culture,” she said.
“It’s very easy for it to escalate from VAR talk and chat to slapping each other on the back and talking about their conquests at the weekend.”
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Despite her concerns, the management guru said she had nothing against sports enthusiasts and that she did not think gabble about games should be banned.
Instead, she argued that good manners should merely moderate conversation to make sure everyone felt comfortable.
Ian Tranter, employment law partner at JMW Solicitors, said that while workplace harassment was a serious issue, banning sports chat was “not only a diversion from the more egregious examples, but itself appears to be based on sexual stereotyping”.
“Furthermore, from a simple health and well-being perspective, shouldn’t employers be encouraging participation in sport and exercise? It seems 1 April has come early this year.”
“The suggestion that sports chat excludes women assumes that women aren’t interested in talking about football, which reinforces gender stereotypes and simply isn’t true,” said Chris Paouros from the Women’s Equality Party.
“If there are women or other groups who feel excluded by topics of conversation in a workplace, the problem is the organisational culture and most likely a lack of diversity within the organisation.”
Sarah Douglas, chief executive of Abbot Mead Vickers AMV BBDO, added: “Banning or putting a gender filter over sports chat sets the feminist agenda back a few thousand light years. What matters is connecting in a meaningful way with each other. Bants will always have a place in my heart as long as it is conducted with integrity and by humans cogniscent enough to put boundaries on unacceptable cliches and tropes.”
Meanwhile Vivienne Artz, president of the Women in Banking & Finance trade body, said: “There is room for different views, team loyalties or just different interests altogether. Let’s not let the same old sports banter dominate the conversation, and instead be deliberately inclusive so everyone has a voice — that is how to build a winning team.”